The Will and Testament

Lalana Sukha stepped out of the van a looked up at the mansion that towered over her menacingly. It was a huge, gothic building that was dripping with ornate stone and unforgiving iron fixtures. The windows looked like tiny slits that didn't appear as though they would allow enough light to fill a small bathroom. To Lalana the mansion and its grounds looked like an ominous castle from a fairy tale. A place where an ogre or witch might live. It was further exacerbated by the fact the leaves of the oak trees surrounding the building had dropped for fall and the flowers were all dead. Lalana felt a chill go through her as she considered the fact that this place was her new home. The driver from the airport brought her only bag from the back of the van, tipped his hat, and then got back in the van and drove away. Lalana was now completely alone in a new country with a new job and no new friends. If she weren't so tough, she'd probably be terrified.

But she was tough. It came from her upbringing. Lalana had been born in rural Thailand to farmers but had run away from home when she was merely 12 years old to go to Bangkok. It should be noted at the time that Lalana was not a girl. She was a little boy who went to Bangkok. But even then she'd known she was destined to be a ladyboy. She'd always known she was supposed to be a woman and pursued her goal doggedly. During her childhood years she worked many odd jobs and saved money. She used that money to begin her transition into womanhood. Because she started early, her transition was nearly flawless. And her beauty did not go unnoticed. Shortly after her 18th birthday, Lalana was recruited by a pimp. The pimp taught her how to pleasure men and women and she learned English and Japanese to appeal to sex tourists.

Lalana enjoyed her life. She loved sex and also loved the wild life of a prostitute. While many would find it hard to believe, it was the life she had intended and she felt no qualms about it. She considered her life as a whore as payment for becoming the woman she wanted to be.

As a result of her intense beauty, she was much in demand. She had long black hair and violet eyes. Her body was thin and wispy as befitted a poor woman, but it was healthy and her breasts were large for tiny body at 32-B. She was 5'3 and 110lbs. Her eyes were large and her lips were thick and pink. She had skin that was a deep olive color and she had high, feminine cheekbones that gave her face a warm, carefree appearance. Her legs were thin but athletic and looked long despite her short stature. She was especially proud of her long nipples and tight, round butt. She felt that she had turned out exactly as she had always desired. However, after nearly six years as a prostitute, her pimp wanted her to transition farther. To remove her penis. The pimp informed her that he wanted her to change and then become his wife. Despite everything, this was one request that Lalana would never allow. She flatly refused.

As a result, her pimp had given her a vicious beating. She had been left for dead in an alley in one of the roughest parts of town. Through luck or fate, one of Lalana's former clients had been in the area and had seen her. Leaving his new prostitute he collected Lalana in his arms and took her to a hospital. When she had adequately recovered he offered to use some of his connections and help her get out of Bangkok and out of the country. He claimed he could get her a green card to go to America. She had consented and the man had been as good as his word. Now, at the age of 24, she was standing in front of a house where her former client had gotten her a job as a housekeeper. It was the start of a new, safer life. The best part was that here she was a woman and everyone who looked at her knew it. Despite her fear of the house, she was excited.

Lalana picked up her only bag and headed to the door. She had always had the things she needed when she was in Thailand. Plenty of clothes and food to make sure that the pimp's investment in her body yielded dividends. When she left, she took next to nothing. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a white tank top. She had no bra and no underwear. Her bag contained another tank-top and a pair of sweatpants. This was all she had in the world. She reached the door and nervously raised her hand to knock. She paused for a minute. When she knocked on the door a new life would begin immediately. She raised her delicate hand to the door and knocked twice.

A few minutes later the door opened ominously. There was no one at the door. Lalana leaned into the house and took a look around. She would later learn that the house was wired for just about everything. There were automatic doors, showers, washing machines; everything was run on a central system that she would never understand. She took a tentative step into the house and looked around. As ancient as the mansion had looked from the outside, it looked modern on the inside. There were beautiful hardwood floors, expensive overstuffed furniture, and the most expensive electronics that Lalana had ever seen. She was standing in the foyer and it was larger than the lobby of some of the hotels she had worked in. There was a large, marble staircase directly ahead of her with beautiful, ornate handrails. She could see a kitchen with tile floors through a door to the right of the stairs. She looked to the right and saw through another door, a large dining room with works of art of the wall and a gigantic china hutch filled with delicate plates and saucers. Finally, she looked to the right and saw a living room with large, white couches and a big screen TV.

It was here that she finally saw people. There were a handful of people sitting in the living room watching television. They didn't even seem to notice that Lalana was there. She was very confused. It seemed both rude and strange that they didn't come to greet her and show her where she was going to work and live. She considered calling to them but decided it would be better if she walked into the room.

She set her bag down next to the door and walked into the living room. When she entered she could better see the four women who were sitting on various couches, eating, and relaxing. They didn't take any notice of her at first. She stood uncomfortably and then walked in front of the television. It was as if she had broken a spell, suddenly they were standing up, embarrassed and prepared to introduce themselves.

"I am so sorry," a blonde woman said, "my name is Tessa Crone we were sort of caught up in the television and didn't hear you come in. You must be Lalana." All of the women in the room were beautiful. Despite the fact that she was the oldest at 40, Tessa was no exception. She was one of the taller and fuller women in the room but still very petite at 5'5 140lbs. She looked like the kind of beautiful, voluptuous women that Lalana always pictured when she thought of Americans. She had medium length light blonde hair and large blue eyes. She had a perfect hourglass build and milky white skin. Her breasts were large 34-Cs and still looked taut and young under her sweater. Her smile was broad and her teeth were absolutely perfect behind her thick, deep red lips. Her face was gorgeous; she looked like she was a movie star who was just outside of the pin-up stage and entering her cougar stage. "This is my daughter, Andrea"

Andrea looked a good deal like her mother. Lalana would always think of Andrea as the quintessential American cheerleader. She was a the shortest girl in the room, a mere 5'1, 98lbs pixie at the age of 18. Surprisingly, despite her size she had relatively large 30-B breasts, making her look even more like a small version of her mother. She had a bubbly look and attitude that shone through her bright green eyes and winning smile. She had soft, light skin and a slightly upturned nose. It was clear that she was going to develop the same hourglass shape as her mother, but she was still young and a bit thin in the hips. Her stomach was flat and her legs looked athletic in her short shorts.

"It is a pleasure to meet you ma'am," Lalana said, first taking Tessa's hand and then her daughter's.

"Oh my goodness, your English is absolutely flawless," The other adult woman in the room said with sincere regard, "My name is Cindy Walker and this is my daughter Felicity."

Cindy Walker was a bit younger than Tessa at 35 years old. She was also a bit smaller at 5'4 and 120lbs. She had the body of a yoga instructor and a bit of a terse look that made such a profession likely for her. She had beautiful light red hair and deep almond colored eyes. She did not appear to smile, but instead gave a sly grin with her thick, pink lips. She had a few freckles on her face that gave her the appearance of being a bit younger than she was and her body completed the illusion. She had small 32-A breasts and thin, lithe legs. Her build was closer to that of a super model, with small breasts and a very skinny, delicate build. It was a look that Lalana had always wanted to capture and hoped that she, in some way, managed.

Again the mother looked remarkably like her daughter. Felicity Walker held the distinction of being both the youngest and the tallest girl in the room. She was also 18 years old, 5'7 and a mere 115lbs. While her mother was too short to completely get the supermodel look down, Felicity almost completely pulled it off with her thin, wiry frame and her perfectly sized 32-B breasts. Her face was also gorgeous. She had long, blood red hair and deep brown eyes. She too had a few freckles on her face but appeared more willing to smile than her mother. She had braces on her teeth but it somehow accentuated her youthful beauty and her face exuded a warmth and calm.

Lalana felt intimidated by all of these beautiful women but was excited that she was apparently passing beautifully as a woman here. They suspected nothing it seemed and were impressed with her English. Things were going well. But there was something she was a bit confused about.

"It is very nice to meet all of you," she said when she had finished shaking all of their hands, "My name is Lalana and..."

"Oh that is such a pretty name," Andrea said in her bubbly fashion. Her mother gave her a stern look for interrupting and Lalana blushed at the compliment.

"Thank you very much," she said, for a moment taken off guard for what she had intended to ask, "May I ask you all a question?"

"Of course!" Tessa replied. Lalana was already sensing a tension between the two different families. When Tessa spoke it was almost like Cindy was angry that she hadn't thought to speak faster.

"I was just wondering...Well I was supposed to be getting a job with a Mr. Joseph Horne and I am just a bit confused," she felt embarrassed as she said this, she wasn't used to such surrounding and formality. Cindy nearly jumped to get a chance to reply.

"You're talking about my father," she explained, "we call him 'grandpa' and he is upstairs in his room."

"He is actually both our father. We are sisters you see," Tessa explained, giving her sister a very unpleasant look. Cindy acted as though she didn't notice, but she surely must have.

"Our father," Cindy said, admitting what Tessa had claimed, "Is a very sick man. He stays up in his room all of the time and it is a very difficult process to go and see him. You would be required to take a shower and then put on sterile clothing. I am afraid my father is not long for this world."

"I am very sorry to hear that," Lalana said and she was telling the truth for both selfish and unselfish reasons. For one she was truly thankful to this man she had never met for helping her get to America and giving her a job where she could be safe and warm and happy. She didn't want anything bad to happen to him. More cynically, she knew that if he died she would be out of work and there would be a chance she could get deported.

"Well that is why my daughter and I came here," Tessa explained, "To take care of him and make sure he lasts a very long time."

"We came here to take care of him as well," Cindy said, putting her arm around Felicity. The two young girls looked a bit uncomfortable. It was clear that neither one of them was particularly thrilled about whatever sort of rivalries existed between their respective mothers.

"Well I am very glad that Mr. Horne is in the hands of those who love him," Lalana said, trying to pick her words carefully. Apparently she did a good job.

"I just can't get over how well you speak. It is uncanny," Cindy said.

"I have been speaking English for many years ma'am," Lalana replied. She was amazed by the transformation she felt in herself. She was never timid in Thailand and would never call someone 'ma'am' but she felt so much under the power of these people that she sensed a new, somewhat submissive side coming out of her and didn't know whether or not she liked it.

"I suppose you would like to know what you are going to be doing?" Tessa asked and Lalana was relieved, they were finally getting down to brass tacks.

"Yes I am very anxious to get started."

"Well it is a pretty basic live-in housekeeping job," Cindy said.

"Yes, it is very simple and we are positive you will be just fantastic at it," Tessa said.

"Oh I am sure she will, she looks like a hard worker," Cindy said. Lalana felt like her neck was going to wrench off from looking back and forth between the two. It was like neither one of them wanted to back down for even a second in some sort of competition that Lalana couldn't possibly understand. They seemed to sense that this was happening and suddenly Felicity seemed to find a solution.

"Why don't we go make dinner for everyone, Mom?" she asked. Tessa looked as though she were about to protest, "That way Aunt Tessa can explain to Ms. Lalana what she needs to do in her job."

"That is a fantastic idea. You are such a smart girl," Tessa said, praising her niece and drawing the ire of her sister for her kindness. Felicity took her mother by the hand and led her out of the room towards the kitchen. Tessa looked relieved and actually seemed to relax now. Things felt less tense and less wooden. Lalana would learn that it was a rare event indeed when Cindy and Tessa could be found in the same room together.

"Where were we?" Tessa asked when her relatives had left the room.

"You were going to tell her what her job was about," Andrea said and winked at Lalana as if to apologize for the adults. Lalana was struck by the fact that she was only a couple of years older than this girl. In a different world, they could be friends.

"Right," Tessa said, gaining some composure, "Okay. As I said it is a relatively simple job. You are to clean the house each day. Nothing more, nothing less. However, it is a quite large house as you can see. This floor has this living room, the dining room, the kitchen, a half bath, a solarium, another living room for my sister and her daughter, the foyer, and the sitting room (where the fireplace is located). There are six rooms in the basement including your suite. You will have a bedroom, a bath, and a full kitchen down there. In addition there is a guest room, a rumpus room, and a bar. Upstairs there are several bedrooms and two bathrooms and in the attic is my father's suite. You won't be responsible for those rooms. In all you will be responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of 21 rooms in the house. You will probably want to do a certain number in a day, I suggest three and then you can switch off every day. When you finish on third you can go back to the first seven rooms on the fourth day and so on. I know it might notw sound like a lot, but as a result of my father's illness each room must be made immaculate during each cleaning. In addition my sister or I may occasionally need to you do other chores or run other errands. If the girls ask you do something, it is totally within your discretion. You don't work for them. You will get Sunday off. We aren't religious here, but we believe in having fun every once in a while and you are free to go to Church if that is what you enjoy. And I think that is it. Would you like to see your room?"

Lalana felt pretty satisfied. It didn't sound like difficult work and she had never had a day off before in her life except when recovering from surgery. She shook her head emphatically. Tessa told her daughter to grab Lalana's bag and they walked to the side of the staircase. There was a doorway there and Lalana saw more stairs hidden behind the drywall underneath the stairs.

She had been a bit disappointed about getting a basement room but she had been wholly wrong. They walked down the basement stairs and they had plush carpet and beautiful white walls. When they reached the bottom of the stairs there were two doors on either side and another directly ahead.

"The door to the left leads to the bar and the rumpus room, to the left is the guest room and straight ahead is your suite. We will leave you here," she said and Andrea gave a cute smile and handed Lalana her bag. Lalana walked ahead and opened the door.

She almost fell over. She walked into a full kitchen with tile floors and stainless steel appliances. It appeared that, although she was in the basement, the back side of the house was on a lower level than the front of the house. As a result, while she had walked to the front door at ground level, by the time you got to the backyard, the basement floor was at ground level. Taking advantage of this, her kitchen had a sliding glass window that allowed her out into the backyard. She passed through a door near her fridge...HER FRIDGE, and came to her bedroom. It was all too much. There was a giant, four post queen sized bed in the middle of the bedroom. There were several large windows in the room and the light flooded her room and made it bright and cheerful. The room was very large and on one side there was the beautiful bed and on the other was a large overstuffed couch and a large screen television. Her bedroom was more like two rooms, a sleeping chamber and a living room. She saw another door and correctly guessed it was the bathroom. It had a large Jacuzzi tub and the other fixtures were stunning.

Lalana went back out into her bedroom and flopped down on her bed and looked at the perfect sheetrock ceiling and breathed in the clean smell of her home and sighed deeply. Maybe being a maid was going to be a lot better than she had expected, she thought carefully. Little did she know that she was just beginning to learn the strange wonders of her new life.

Chapter 2: Learning Some Secrets

Slowly Lalana started to get used to the way in which things worked in the Horne household. It was like four separate households. There was her house in the basement, the Walker's house, the Crone's house, and the mysterious Horne residence in the attic. Everyone seemed to keep to themselves. There was a delicate dance in the kitchen in which the Crone's took turns cooking meals so that the other family wouldn't be there with them. They each made "grandpa" a meal three times a day and took it up, thinking the other wasn't paying attention. The daughter, Andrea and Felicity, kept up a good front when their mothers were around but Lalana noticed that when they didn't think anyone was listening they would talk to one another or go outside in the hedge maze and hang out. They even rode to school together in Andrea's car. Neither of the mother's knew this, they thought Felicity took the bus.

But that wasn't really much of Lalana's concern. Her primary goal each day was to clean seven rooms. She liked the fact that her three rooms were included in the 21 rooms she had to clean and she saved them all up for each third day so that she only had to clean four. She especially liked it when it worked out that it was Saturday and then next day she had off. She usually never cleaned her rooms as no one was ever in there anyway. The cleaning itself was not very difficult. She vacuumed, dusted, cleaned windows, and basically gave a top to bottom scrubbing of each room every day. As time when on she got better and better at her work and that meant that she got faster. After only a couple of months she was usually able to finish all her work for the day in just under seven hours. She had never had so much free time in her life, especially when she had Sundays off.